How soldiers arrested chief priest, killed two militants

Soldiers attached to the special team of Operation Delta Safe in the Niger Delta said on Monday they had killed a top militant leader of the Bakassi Strike Force and another during a gun duel in Cross River State.

The two suspected militants, including a notorious militant leader in the area popularly known as Okon Iyo, were reportedly shot dead during an operation at Efut Esighi forest in the southern area of the state on Thursday.

The chief priest to the Bakassi Strike Force was also reportedly arrested at one of the militants’ shrines at Ekpri Ebutong Estate in Bakassi by troops at Ikang border in Akpabuyo Local Government Area.

A statement issued on Monday by the spokesman and coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre, Lt. Col. Olaolu Daudu, read in part, “On 31st October, 2016, troops foiled vandalism of the NPDC well head at Kokori oilfield, Oil Mining Lease 30, located at Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State. The vandals fled the site on sighting troops.

The statement said, “Please, be informed that on 27th October, 2016, troops of Sector 4 at Efut Esighi in southern Cross River State, during the anti-militancy operation, raided Efut Esighi forest and killed a notorious militant, popularly known as Okon Iyo while he was trying to escape.”